Virtual Machine series

A Series

Entry-level economical VMs for dev/test

A-series VMs have CPU performance and memory configurations best suited for entry level workloads like development and test. They are economical and provide a low-cost option to get started with Azure.

Example use cases include development and test servers, low traffic web servers, small to medium databases, servers for proof-of-concepts, and code repositories.

D Series

General purpose compute

D-series VMs feature solid state drives (SSDs), fast CPUs, and optimal CPU-to-memory configuration making them suitable for most general-purpose applications. A subset of the D-series VMs also sport higher memory per CPU making them suitable for applications that require higher amounts of memory.

Example use cases include most applications, relational databases, in-memory caching, and analytics.

Dv2 Series—Next generation general purpose compute

Dv2-series instances are the latest generation of D-series instances that will carry more powerful CPUs which are on average about 35% faster than D-series instances, and carry the same memory and disk configurations as the D-series. Dv2-series instances are based on the latest generation 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon® E5-2673 v3 (Haswell) processor, and with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 can go to 3.2 GHz. The DSv2 version of Dv2 supports premium storage.

Example use cases include—Dv2-series are ideal for applications that demand faster CPUs, better local disk performance or higher memories, and offer a powerful combination for many enterprise-grade applications.

E Series

Optimized for in-memory hyper-threaded applications

The E-Series family of Azure virtual machines are optimized for heavy in-memory applications such as SAP HANA. These VMs are setup with high memory-to-core ratios which makes them well-suited for relational database servers, with medium to large caches, and in-memory analytics. The E-Series VMs range from 2 to 64 vCPUs and 16-432 GiB RAM, respectively.

Example use cases include SAP HANA, SAP S/4 HANA, SQL Hekaton and other large in-memory business critical workloads.

F Series

Compute optimized virtual machines

F-series VM sizes sport a higher CPU-to-memory ratio. They feature 2 GB RAM and 16 GB of local solid state drive (SSD) per CPU core, and are optimized for compute intensive workloads. The F-series is based on the 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon® E5-2673 v3 (Haswell) processor, which can achieve clock speeds as high as 3.1 GHz with the Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0.

Example use cases include scenarios like batch processing, web servers, analytics, and gaming.

G Series

Memory and storage optimized virtual machines

G-series VMs feature the latest Intel® Xeon® processor E5 v3 family, two times more memory, and four times more Solid State Drive storage (SSDs) than the General Purpose D-series. G-series sport RAM of up to ½ TB and 32 CPU cores, and provide unparalleled computational performance, memory, and local SSD storage for your most demanding applications.

Example use cases include large SQL and NoSQL databases, ERP, SAP, and data warehousing solutions.

H Series

High performance virtual machines

The H series family are next generation high performance computing VMs. These are ideal for high end computational needs like molecular modeling, computational fluid dynamics, and similar. These VMs are built on Intel Haswell processor technology, specifically E5-2667 V3 processors with 8 and 16 core VM sizes, both featuring DDR4 memory and local SSD based storage. The H-series line up offers, besides substantial CPU power, diverse options for RDMA and low latency capable networking using InfiniBand, along with several memory configurations to support memory intensive computational requirements.

L Series

Storage optimized virtual machines

The L-series family of Azure virtual machines are storage optimized VMs. These are ideal for applications requiring low latency, high throughput, and large local disk storage. These VMs are built on Intel Haswell processor technology, specifically E5 Xeon v3 processors with 4, 8, 16, and 32 core VM sizes. L-series supports up to 6 TB of local SSD and offers unmatched storage I/O performance.

Example use cases include NoSQL databases such as Cassandra, MongoDB, Cloudera, and Redis. Data warehousing applications and large transactional databases are great use cases as well.

M Series

Largest memory optimized virtual machines

The M-series family of Azure virtual machines are the largest memory optimized VMs to date. These VMs are ideal for heavy in-memory workloads such as SAP HANA. The M-Series offer the largest available memory capacities starting from 1 TiB of RAM on a single VM. In addition, these VMs offer the highest virtual CPU count of up to 128 vCPUs on a single VM to enable high performance parallel processing.

N Series

GPU enabled virtual machines

The N-series is a family of Azure Virtual Machines with GPU capabilities. GPUs are ideal for compute and graphics-intensive workloads, helping customers to fuel innovation through scenarios like high-end remote visualization, deep learning, and predictive analytics. Available in preview today, the N-series will feature the NVIDIA Tesla accelerated platform as well as NVIDIA GRID 2.0 technology, providing the highest-end graphics support available in the cloud today. One of the N-series VMs has a second low latency, high-throughput network interface (RDMA) tuned for tightly coupled, parallel computing workloads.